100 Word Challenge: Words

We all know what spam is… and not the gelatinous lump of canned processed meat food. Rather those annoying, sometimes humorous, sometimes disturbing, sometimes vulgar emails or blog/social media comments we receive on the regular.

Most of my email spam comes to my Yahoo account, and I don’t usually see them unless I’m doing a purge. When I get unsolicited mail to my regular home account, I immediately unsubscribe or when possible, block the sender.

Spam on my blog is filtered through Akismet, and I typically don’t received more than one or two a day, but when one slips through it can actually be the highlight of my morning.

The spam on my blog gets so bizarre that it has become its own meme – Spam Comment of the Day – on my Facebook page where I respond to my recent favorites.

One comment this week appeared to be a mishmash of every possible spam script available, all in one comment… all 2,200 words of it. (yes, I actually did a word count on it.)

Other inanely long comments are more like Mad Libs on steroids. The same script, but all the adjectives/adverbs are multiple choice through out. Seriously, just pick a word.

Most of these weird comments appear to have originated in a language other than English and sent through a translation program. They rarely make sense… if only I could reverse the process.

As luck would have it…

WordPress(dot)com now offers a Google Translate widget option. (See the new feature in the sidebar). Just find the language you prefer in the dropdown menu, click, and off you go. With more than 100 languages, you’re sure to find your favorite.

Just for fun, I ran my tag line – My Journal of Big Words and Pretty Pictures – through the translator in several different languages, then sent it back through for an English version. The results only bolstered my theory that my spam gets lost in translation.

“If the English language made any sense, lackadaisical would have something to do with a shortage of flowers.” ~ Doug Larson

This week’s word is:

Words

What to do:

Using “words” for inspiration, write 100 Words – 100 exactly – no more, no less. You can either use the word – or any form of the word – as one of your 100, or it can be implied. Include a link in your post back here, and add your story to the Mister Linky list. If you don’t have a blog, you can leave your submission in the comment section, or as a Facebook status post. Remember to keep spreading the love with supportive comments for your fellow Wordsters.

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